If We Built It Today (2019–…): Season 2, Episode 10 - Statue of Liberty - full transcript
[narrator] With her torch
held high over Liberty island,
the Statue of Liberty
is the most recognizable
monument in the world.
She is Lady Liberty after all.
A personification of freedom.
[narrator] Since 1886,
the colossal copper clad statue
blends beauty with brawn
and art with science.
The statue was
a technological wonder.
It's this marriage of engineering
with a sort of cladding of art?
[narrator] But after over a century
battling wind, salt, air and rain,
the statue was
in desperate need of repair.
And in 1984, it underwent
a massive restoration.
There was the danger that the
statue would actually collapse.
[narrator] So now,
we're curious.
If Lady Liberty
ever aged beyond repair,
could modern technology
help us build
a weather-proof replacement?
With enough money,
yes, I think we could do it.
[narrator] What have we learned
since the statue was originally built?
We're gonna see if we can
take her to new heights
using the heaviest equipment,
the latest machinery
and an unlimited budget.
[narrator] Imagine the world's
greatest wonders reimagined.
We're wondering,
how long would it take?
How much would it cost?
How many workers would we need?
Could we even do it
if we built it today?
[narrator] New York, New York.
The city where anything
is possible
and home to one of New York's
star attractions,
the Statue of Liberty.
In fact, it's hard to imagine
what New York City
would like without her.
Every ship that comes into New
York City sees the Statue of Liberty.
She has become
a universal symbol of liberty,
the idea that freedom
is for everybody.
[narrator] Standing
at 305 feet tall,
Lady Liberty is nearly a third
of the height of the Eiffel Tower.
And built with
over 30 tons of copper.
And her concrete foundation
weighs 27,000 tons.
That's equivalent to
the weight of 4,000 elephants.
And those sandals,
they're size 879.
Yet, even though
she resides in New York,
the idea to build
the Statue of Liberty
actually came from French
philosopher, Edouard de Laboulaye.
In 1865, he proposed
that France create a statue
to give to the United States
to celebrate
the nation's success
in building a viable democracy.
[Diana] Laboulaye introduced
his idea to Bartholdi,
who was a young sculptor
interested in doing, uh,
grand patriotic monuments.
[narrator]
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
was fascinated with
old colossal sculptures
and travelled to different
countries looking for inspiration.
One of which was
the Colossus of Rhodes.
At 105 feet tall,
the bronze statue
was a monument
to the Sun God, Helios
and a testament
to the city's independence.
[Emily] That Bronze would have
gleamed in that bright Greek sunlight.
And you would have seen it
from far away
as you sailed
into Rhodes as well.
It was ostentatious,
daring, bold
and we're still talking about it
even though
it doesn't exist for us.
[narrator] Drawing inspiration
from the Colossus statue's
appearance and symbolism,
Bartholdi set out to work on
his New York City masterpiece.
Teaming up with civil
engineer, Gustave Eiffel.
[John] Lady Liberty
is only possible
because Gustave Eiffel
had spent decades
building iron bridges
for the rail road age
in Industrial Revolution.
[narrator] For Liberty,
Eiffel created an elaborate
138-ton iron skeleton.
[Peter] Just an ingenious idea
and I think the statue
is as beautiful on the inside
is as it is on the outside.
[narrator] It took hundreds
of workers almost a decade
to build the Statue of Liberty
in Paris.
In June, 1885, the dismantled
Statue of Liberty,
a gift of friendship between the people
of France to the people of America
arrived in New York Harbor.
All Liberty needed now
was a pedestal.
But neither France nor the
US Congress would foot the bill.
That's when publisher,
Joseph Pulitzer stepped in.
He sponsored fund raisers
and published editorials in his newspaper,
urging the public to raise money.
Remarkably, the fundraising
campaign was a hit.
And in October 1886,
the statue
was officially unveiled,
and designated a universal
symbol of freedom and opportunity.
[Kevin] It is of course the first thing
immigrants would see on their ships
as they went
into New York Harbor,
to the great clearing stations
at Ellis Island
and Castle Gardens.
[narrator] But after
a century standing over
the more than
12 million immigrants,
who sailed into New York Harbor,
Lady Liberty was
in desperate need of repair.
Thankfully, two eager
entrepreneurs came to her rescue.
[Peter] My name is Peter Lehrer,
I have been in the construction
business my whole life.
This was a challenge
and somebody had to do it.
[narrator] While Peter handled
the business side of the operation,
his partner, Gene McGovern,
oversaw the construction.
He was about 6'3"
and I could still see him, uh,
walking on the scaffold
in his cowboy boots without
any type of protection.
[narrator] In 1983,
Peter and Gene
won a sought after
innovation contract,
to restore
the Statue of Liberty.
The challenge was to complete
the high-stakes project
in time for Lady Liberty's
100th anniversary.
[Peter] If we were
not successful
it would have been
the end of our business,
the end of our... our careers.
[narrator] So just how bad
was the Statue of Liberty
in need of a makeover?
Extreme winds and flooding
caused sever deterioration
to the statue's
supporting structure.
And almost half
of the iron framework
that supported
the copper skin had corroded.
[Peter] We believed that if
this project was not undertaken
there was a possibility that
the statue could've collapsed.
It just was
in that poor of shape.
And that would've been
a catastrophe
if that was to happen.
[narrator] With the goal of
preservation, not a replacement,
engineers came up with
a detailed plan
to fix Lady Liberty's
significant problems.
[Peter] Everything that was done
had really never been done before.
Conventional ways
of doing things and repair
were just not possible.
[narrator] So,
now we're wondering
if the statue
aged beyond repair,
could we recreate
New York's most famous icon,
and will the nation
even accept a replacement?
The statue is beloved
by New Yorkers,
by Americans in general.
It would be impossible
to replicate it,
to have anything that would
have the same symbolism.
Sorry. [laughs]
I think the only thing I would
change if we built it today,
is probably the base.
The base was very traditional
when it was designed and built.
[narrator] We'd also
have to decide
where we'd build
and how tall it would be.
[Annabelle] You know,
the design is key,
the engineering is key.
It's very complicated.
[narrator] We'd have to
think about how our goddess
would stand up to Mother Nature.
We'd have to pick
the perfect materials,
and what about the money?
Replacing an icon
is not gonna be cheap.
The cost can be huge,
and I would say probably
30% of those costs are buried
underground and you don't even see them.
[narrator] Can Lady Liberty
pass the torch
to a new Colossus in the Harbor
if we built it today?
[narrator] Since 1886,
the Statue of Liberty
has stood as a beacon
of freedom, opportunity
and a universal symbol
of democracy.
Statue of Liberty
is very famous.
It's, uh, iconic even.
[narrator] But Lady Liberty
wasn't the first sculpture
to embody a sense
of awe and wonder.
[John] The oldest human art
we know
includes cave paintings
of human figurines.
So creating the human form
is one of the things
that makes us human.
[narrator] Prehistoric
carvings with human likenesses
have existed
for thousands of years.
But the most
storied statue of them all
lorded over a Greek island.
The Colossus of Rhodes
was a bronze statue of Helios,
God of Sun.
It was as tall as
a nine-story building.
An astonishing creation
for its time.
[Kevin] It was one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world.
Something that really
fascinated Europe for a long time.
[narrator]
And the inspiration for
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's
design
for the Statue of Liberty.
[Annabelle] Anybody arriving at
Ellis Island saw the Statue of Liberty.
It was very powerful,
sitting out
in the middle of the water.
[narrator] But all that water actually
caused some serious problems.
And by the 1980s, Lady Liberty
was on the brink of collapse.
Fierce winds, heavy rain
and flooding wreaked havoc
on the statue's
mechanical, electrical
and plumbing systems.
[Peter] There was considerable
structural problems
and if they were not fixed,
there was the danger that
the statue would actually,
uh, collapse.
[narrator] In 1984, with the help of Peter
Lehrer and his partner Gene McGovern,
a major restoration project aimed
to restore Liberty to her original glory.
[Peter] The project,
just from the get-go,
had gigantic
logistical challenges.
The statue is on an island.
We had to figure out how to
create conditions on the island,
to be able to manage
this construction.
[narrator] The project
was a team effort,
made possible by designers, scientists
and engineers from the US and France.
They assembled two teams, just
as Bartholdi and Eiffel did in France.
[Peter] We created these shops
to do two very critical tasks.
One was the shop
for the French artisans,
who had actually
come from Paris.
They brought their own tools
with them.
[narrator] The French workers
recreated Bartholdi's copper shop.
And the Americans played
the role of Eiffel's iron team.
[Peter] The iron workers had to
replace all of the armature bars,
and this was a 24-hour,
seven-day-a-week project.
The armature bars were
taken off, brought into the shop.
They had to be cleaned, the
asbestos had to be taken off.
And we replicated the bars
within the shop
and then re-installed them
in the statue.
[narrator] For two years, workers
scaled the largest free-standing scaffold
ever erected, day and night.
But, saving the world's
most famous statue,
was a risky job.
It is remarkable
how dangerous this project was
and how fortunate we were
that no one lost their life
or was seriously injured.
[narrator] So, what caused this
whole problem in the first place?
Liberty was suffering
from a colossal case
of galvanic corrosion.
What's that?
It's an effect caused by
allowing different metals to touch.
[narrator] If you've ever left your
batteries in your TV remote too long,
you've seen what a mess
galvanic corrosion can make.
Eiffel knew that soldering
iron and copper in direct contact
would lead to erosion.
So, to isolate the copper skin
from the iron bars,
he wrapped the iron
with asbestos insulation.
But, as the decades passed,
the insulation broke down
and the bars started to rust.
And the fact that water
was seeping into the statue,
made everything worse.
Experts thought the solution
was to coat the inside of the statue
with tar and lead paint.
But, that was a bad idea.
It was the worst thing
they possibly could have done
and it accelerated
the deterioration.
We had moisture
that was being trapped
and a continual deterioration
of the structure.
We needed something that would
not deteriorate and that would last,
literally, forever.
[narrator] So, the team
turned to a metal that Eiffel
could have only dreamed
of using.
The final decision
was stainless steel.
No single bar was the same
as another.
[narrator] Peter
and his team decided
every one of Eiffel's skeleton
bars needed replacement.
And that asbestos insulator
gave way to new Teflon linings,
to keep the copper away
from the skeleton bars for good.
Now, refitted
with new technology,
Lady Liberty could
take on the next 100 years.
But, what if those problems had
knocked Lady Liberty off her pedestal?
Now, we're wondering...
Utilizing cutting edge tech,
could we recreate the nation's most
beloved icon fit for the 21st century?
I don't like it.
[narrator] Fair enough, Peter.
But, if the statue ever aged
beyond repair,
could your company rebuild it?
Absolutely. There's nothing
we can't do.
[narrator] That's good enough
for us.
But, before we can start
sketching out our design,
we have some
monumental decisions to make.
How tall could
our new statue be?
What materials would we use?
How many workers would it take?
And how much would this
whole mega-project cost
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're conceptualizing
a brand-new Statue of Liberty.
Built with cutting edge
tech and materials,
so that it can withstand
the test of time.
The Statue of Liberty may have
been ahead of its time, in 1886,
but it comes in a bit short in today's
quest for monumental greatness.
[Emily chuckling] People
sometimes just like really big stuff.
Such sculptures create awe,
right? Wonder.
But they're also symbols.
[narrator] In 2008, Myanmar's
Laykyun Sekkya Buddha
was the tallest statue
in the world,
coming in at 380 feet.
Followed shortly after, China's Spring
Temple Buddha won the title at 500 feet.
And today's reigning champ
is India's Statue of Unity,
at a whopping 597 feet.
That's twice the height
of the Statue of Liberty.
From what we've gathered, the most
recognized statues express the human desire
to achieve greatness
and conquer new heights.
They become national treasures.
So, to light a fire under our
new Liberty, here's our plan.
First, we want to make
this colossus
at least three times
the original height.
That means our new statue
would rise 915 feet,
as tall as a 60-story building.
We'll find our creation a
dramatic setting to spend eternity.
And we'll call her
Liberty Reborn.
But now, we gotta figure out
what our statue's gonna look like.
For inspiration, we'll head to the
place where the idea for Liberty began.
Welcome to Rhodes.
[narrator] Architects
Ari Palla and Ombretta Iannone
were the masterminds behind
a massive 21st century rebuild
of the Colossus of Rhodes.
This statue stand for
about 54 years
but then, there was
a very strong earthquake.
The sculpture snapped
at the knees
and fell down onto the floor.
[narrator] Now, more than
two millennia later,
Ari and Ombretta envision a
quarter-billion-dollar super statue,
half as tall
as the Eiffel Tower.
And not just art,
but a fully functioning
building.
[Ari Palla speaking]
[narrator] And how cool is this?
The new colossus
will soak up the sun
with skin
made out of solar panels.
But, this is Greece.
And we're designing
for New York.
So, what could we use to
clothe our new Statue of Liberty?
Well, the original statue proves
it's possible to be thin-skinned
and tough as nails.
Her copper cladding
is only two pennies thick.
In the 19th century,
workers spent nine years
hammering hot copper into shape
using a technique
called repousse.
In the beginning, Liberty
shone like a brand-new penny.
But, by the early 20th century,
she was showing her true colors.
There was some thought
that we should paint it.
And instead, the Army Corps of
Engineers looked at it and said, "No,
the new, green patina had given
it a color that made it beautiful."
[narrator] The green goddess
is undeniably gorgeous.
But, as we imagine
Liberty Reborn,
something shiny
is catching our eye.
These days, stainless steel is a
whole lot more than your kitchen sink.
It makes a chic cladding,
turning up on everything.
From mammoth art in Brussels,
to a giant bean in Chicago.
But, could it work
for our statue?
For the answers, we're turning to
metallurgical engineer, Richard deHaas.
So, right now,
we're getting ready to pour.
The temperature
is about 2,980 Fahrenheit.
[narrator] This steel foundry
melts metal down to a red-hot brew
and casts it into steep shapes.
It also has this,
a state-of-the-art
robotic 3D sand printer.
The machine takes digital
models and prints them in the sand.
The sand sticks together with
an adhesive to form a mold.
So, from here,
we will then pour the steel.
The steel will fill up all the areas
in between where the dry sand was.
And the sand will then
break down from the hot steel.
And you are left with the
shape that you're looking for.
[narrator] So, could
this cutting-edge machinery
help us create
a new Statue of Liberty?
This technology would
also be used for a statue.
All your parts
can be custom made.
And there's no limit to the
complexity that you're looking for.
[narrator] Perfect.
Now, what about durability?
[Richard] Potentially, stainless
steel could last up to 1,000 years,
because it doesn't
get affected by the weather.
[narrator] Done.
A cladding of stainless steel sounds
perfect for our new Statue of Liberty.
But, what about its framework?
Could we dare to revive Gustave
Eiffel's revolutionary iron skeleton?
The structure of
the Statue of Liberty
is one of its great secrets
and one of
its great achievements.
That structure is what makes
Lady Liberty possible.
[narrator] There's no questioning
Eiffel's engineering prowess.
But his access
to robust materials
was pretty limited
by today's standards.
Mixing copper and iron
for resilience and strength
proved to be his Achilles heel
when it came to corrosion.
So, to avoid weathering,
we would build our entire
statue with stainless steel.
Inside and out.
Your initial cost is a lot
higher, but in the end,
your maintenance will be
a lot lower.
[narrator] Perfect.
But can we lift Liberty higher
than she's ever been lifted before?
Can our dream project
bridge the gap
between Bartholdi's France
and America's future?
And what can we learn
from the world's tallest towers
and one wobbly wonder
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're figuring out what it
would take to create Liberty Reborn.
A modern day version
of the Statue of Liberty.
We wouldn't dream of
tearing down the original.
But after a century battling
extreme weather in New York Harbor,
we wanna make sure that we
could produce a perfect replacement
if she ever aged beyond repair.
And for our colossus, we're
dreaming of the world's tallest statue,
standing tall and proud
at 915 feet tall.
Three times the original height,
but with all the same
beauty and meaning.
We'd build her
out of stainless steel
and a skeleton tough enough
to last another hundred years.
But of course, now that
we have a vision,
we need the perfect location.
[Annabelle] Setting is
very powerful.
That is
!an important consideration
for the success of any
monument and any statue.
[narrator] Liberty's creator,
Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi,
understood the power
of the perfect setting.
To him, Bedloe's Island,
now called Liberty Island,
looked like
a gateway to the world.
So, if we're gonna build a new
version of the Statue of Liberty,
she's gotta be the centerpiece
of New York Harbor.
So, what if instead of
building by the harbor,
we made our statue over it?
In other words,
with today's technology,
could we build our history-making
monument on top of a bridge?
[narrator] Liberty's pedestal
is a classical beauty
made with 27,000 tons
of concrete and stone.
We're making a case for a base
that would bring more Paris to NYC.
Our bridge would pay homage
to Gustave Eiffel.
Years before designing
Liberty's iron frame,
the engineer was famous
for his bridge designs.
We're envisioning a trio
of stainless steel bridges
connecting Liberty Park, Black
Tom Island, and Liberty Island.
The statue would stand on
a platform in the middle.
But why a triple bridge?
Well, we're borrowing an idea from another
colossal dreamer, Ari Palla, in Greece.
Thanks to a strategically
draped loincloth,
Ari's design for a new
Colossus of Rhodes
is a tripod.
[narrator] A tripod is stable
and straightforward.
But our bridge will also have
to be extraordinarily strong.
The original Statue of Liberty
weighs 172 tons.
And at 915 feet, our statue is
going to weigh way beyond that.
So, how can we make sure
our bridge won't crash down
under the weight
of Liberty Reborn?
For this, we'll take another
page from Eiffel's notebook.
[narrator reading]
In a simple stone arch, each piece
is supported by the stones beside it,
all the way down
to the foundations.
That defines a specific path for
the loads, for the forces that happens
inside the...
Inside the arch, right?
That is what we call
the line of thrust
and that is
a given geometry, right?
And that is, in theory, the
perfect geometry of that arch
for that given
loading condition.
[narrator] An arch performs best
when the load it's supporting
is symmetrical
and the load path, or the line
of thrust, stays within the arch.
But if we apply bigger
and bigger loads,
at some point that line of thrust
is gonna go outside of the arch
and the arch will
no longer work right.
[narrator] Unlike stone,
steel arches can bend slightly.
[Jorge speaking]
[narrator] But of course, there are
limits to how much force they can take.
[narrator] On top of that, when
we supersize the Statue of Liberty,
we gotta deal with something
called the problem of scale.
Basically as you, you know,
increase in height,
you're basically putting more
mass on the structure.
You know, it has to transfer through
this structure all the way to the ground,
so there is
an increase in weight.
That means that
in some conditions,
the building can collapse
on itself, on its weight.
[narrator] All right. So, as we scale
up, our statue gets way heavier.
Our arches are gonna need
Herculean strength to hold all that weight.
Time to go back to our bridge
engineer to figure out a solution.
[Jorge speaking]
[narrator] So Liberty's
new platform will be a truss
designed to spread the load
evenly along the bridge arches
and Jorge's given us
another idea.
We'll lean those arches inward like the
arches at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
It'll be a support network
in steel.
And if you're gonna build
high, you gotta dig deep.
We'll excavate down to bedrock and
drill in piles to anchor our foundation.
[Jorge] We are gonna
put a lot of money in
those foundations that
no one is gonna see.
And they are as big,
probably, as a building.
That will deal with
these horizontal forces.
[narrator]
But we haven't conquered
all of Liberty Reborn's
design challenges yet.
After all, this New York.
So there'll be salt spray
from the sea, scorching sun,
snow storms,
and centuries of rain.
But for any tall structure,
the biggest hurdle is wind.
So how can we save our statue
from diving torch first into the Harbor
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're dreaming up a
remarkable feat of engineering
built in the middle of
the New York Harbor.
Picture a massive,
triangular walking bridge
topped off with an
all-new Statue of Liberty.
And we don't mean
just any old replica.
This engineering spectacle would
be three times the size of the original,
perched on top of a bridge making
it the tallest statue in the world.
Sure, it sounds wild, but our
experts say it's not impossible.
We have built bridges that size.
Uh, I think it's more that
massive load in the middle,
which is gonna be
a huge challenge to overcome.
But engineering has overcome
other challenges as well.
So I think it could be done.
[narrator] We're just about ready to rev up
the machines and start our fantasy build.
But first, we gotta figure
out how our goddess
will handle the wicked
winds of New York.
The higher you go,
the faster the wind speed.
So how fast are we talking here?
A big thunderstorm can pack
winds of up to 150 miles an hour,
and tornadoes have been
clocked at 310 miles an hour.
But wait, it gets worse.
Because of a phenomenon called
natural resonant frequency.
What's that?
Well, every structure, from
a wine glass to a skyscraper,
has a frequency at which
it wants to vibrate.
[Fadi] Imagine if you were
pushing against a swing
at the frequency
that actually matches
the natural frequency
of the swing.
Then that swing
will keep vibrating
back and forth
and increasing in amplitude.
And what does that mean? As the
actual structure will keep vibrating,
the amplitude
will keep increasing
until something breaks
within the structure.
[narrator] And the results
can be disastrous.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
in Washington in 1940.
This is what happens when the
movement of air around a structure
just happens to match the
structure's natural resonant frequency.
So how will Liberty on a bridge
stand up to nature's bluster?
Maybe the occupants
will not feel safe
when they are on top of
a tower or a statue
that is actually vibrating
a lot.
Structural-wise,
it could be okay.
Strength-wise,
everything is good.
But deflection-wise is not good.
[narrator] So,
what stops tall buildings
from tipping over
or cracking off in high winds?
Well, they're designed to move.
A little.
[Jamil] When it comes to the main
part where we are standing on now,
the deflection is about a foot.
It depends on the intensity of
the wind blowing on the tower.
[narrator] People in a skyscraper shouldn't
be able to feel the building move.
If there is movement, the
structure has to absorb it and fast.
So, how does engineering
save the day?
As it turns out, many super tall
buildings have hanging weights
called tuned mass dampers.
[Fadi] The tuned mass damper, in
basic terms, it's a mechanical device
that is used to decrease or eliminate
altogether unwanted vibrations.
[Jamil] Basically,
it's the pendulum system
with a mass hanging from
the structure
and it will dampen
this movement until it stops.
[narrator] As the wind pushes
the structure in one direction,
the damper swings
in the opposite direction,
absorbing the energy, keeping
the building nice and steady.
Ari Palla has mass dampers in the
plans for his new Colossus of Rhodes.
And the Statue of Unity has two
dampers weighing 200 tons each.
So, that settles it.
Liberty Reborn will have a pair of
mass dampers hidden at chest level.
Now, it's time
for the finishing touches
before we can unveil
our masterpiece to the public
if we built it today.
[narrator] So, you want to build
a brand-new Statue of Liberty.
Not a copy.
But a multi-billion-dollar,
21st century colossus
to reign over New York Harbor
and inspire the nation.
But a job like this doesn't
get done in a New York minute.
It took more than 3,000
workers almost five years
to build the Statue of Unity.
The tallest statue in the world.
We need just as many workers and
the job could take up to seven years.
So, let's get digging.
To build a big bridge,
the first thing
that you have to do
is build the foundations.
So, everything starts
with a big excavation,
so you can build
your foundations.
[narrator] We'll anchor our
triple foundation into bedrock
and add three
concrete caissons underground.
We'll start building our three
arches toward a center meeting point.
Each one would cantilever out
from the foundation.
Depending on the size
of the bridge,
sometimes those cantilevers
become too flexible.
So, they really need to be
supported by a big tower with cables.
So, basically
what you are doing is
you are making a temporary,
cable-stayed bridge to support your arch
until you get to the center
and you close the arch.
[narrator] Once our three
leaning arches are in place,
we'll build the enormous
platform in the center.
It'll work like
the deck of a bridge,
except its job will be to
support a statue, not traffic.
That platform will need to have a
lot of support along the arch, right?
Because we... we want
to distribute the load
as much as possible along
the length of the arch, right?
[narrator] Next, it's time
to recreate and upsize
Eiffel's inner framework
for the goddess,
but this time,
in stainless steel.
And we'll add two tuned
mass dampers to the chest.
Then, Liberty will take shape with
her shimmering, stainless steel skin.
The cladding will arrive on-site
in pre-fabricated sections.
We'll lift them on cranes
and weld them into place.
And just like that,
the Statue of Liberty would be reborn
atop a bridge in New York Harbor.
The tallest statue in the world.
Engineered to survive
for centuries,
destined to attract millions
of people from all nations.
So, how much money would it take
to make this kind of colossal history?
Well, the Statue of Unity cost
almost half a billion dollars.
But we're looking at an even
bigger bill in the Big Apple.
I think it would be more in
the tens of billions. [laughs]
To start with, you have three
big arches, plus the statue.
I think, for sure,
over ten billion dollars.
Almost for sure. Yeah.
[narrator] To welcome
our new colossus,
we'd throw a party to rival the one
held for the Statue of Liberty in 1886.
Bartholdi was a hero that day.
But one of his dreams
didn't come true.
He wanted Liberty's torch
to have real fire.
So, in tribute to him, the
torch of Liberty Reborn
would light up the New
York sky with eternal flames.
But, of course, the real Statue
of Liberty isn't going anywhere.
Thanks, in part, to the engineer
who helped save her in the 1980s.
I'm kind of always
looking for the statue
if I'm in an airplane and I'm
flying back in and out of New York.
It's sort of like being
with an old friend.
It's just been part of my life.
It lasted 100 years
until we fixed it,
and I think it could last
hundreds more years.
It's in very good shape.
[narrator]
The Statue of Liberty
is so much more
than steel and copper.
For people all over the world, she still
represents hope, freedom, possibility,
and she reminds us
what wonders we can achieve
with art, science,
and colossal dreams
if we built it today.
held high over Liberty island,
the Statue of Liberty
is the most recognizable
monument in the world.
She is Lady Liberty after all.
A personification of freedom.
[narrator] Since 1886,
the colossal copper clad statue
blends beauty with brawn
and art with science.
The statue was
a technological wonder.
It's this marriage of engineering
with a sort of cladding of art?
[narrator] But after over a century
battling wind, salt, air and rain,
the statue was
in desperate need of repair.
And in 1984, it underwent
a massive restoration.
There was the danger that the
statue would actually collapse.
[narrator] So now,
we're curious.
If Lady Liberty
ever aged beyond repair,
could modern technology
help us build
a weather-proof replacement?
With enough money,
yes, I think we could do it.
[narrator] What have we learned
since the statue was originally built?
We're gonna see if we can
take her to new heights
using the heaviest equipment,
the latest machinery
and an unlimited budget.
[narrator] Imagine the world's
greatest wonders reimagined.
We're wondering,
how long would it take?
How much would it cost?
How many workers would we need?
Could we even do it
if we built it today?
[narrator] New York, New York.
The city where anything
is possible
and home to one of New York's
star attractions,
the Statue of Liberty.
In fact, it's hard to imagine
what New York City
would like without her.
Every ship that comes into New
York City sees the Statue of Liberty.
She has become
a universal symbol of liberty,
the idea that freedom
is for everybody.
[narrator] Standing
at 305 feet tall,
Lady Liberty is nearly a third
of the height of the Eiffel Tower.
And built with
over 30 tons of copper.
And her concrete foundation
weighs 27,000 tons.
That's equivalent to
the weight of 4,000 elephants.
And those sandals,
they're size 879.
Yet, even though
she resides in New York,
the idea to build
the Statue of Liberty
actually came from French
philosopher, Edouard de Laboulaye.
In 1865, he proposed
that France create a statue
to give to the United States
to celebrate
the nation's success
in building a viable democracy.
[Diana] Laboulaye introduced
his idea to Bartholdi,
who was a young sculptor
interested in doing, uh,
grand patriotic monuments.
[narrator]
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
was fascinated with
old colossal sculptures
and travelled to different
countries looking for inspiration.
One of which was
the Colossus of Rhodes.
At 105 feet tall,
the bronze statue
was a monument
to the Sun God, Helios
and a testament
to the city's independence.
[Emily] That Bronze would have
gleamed in that bright Greek sunlight.
And you would have seen it
from far away
as you sailed
into Rhodes as well.
It was ostentatious,
daring, bold
and we're still talking about it
even though
it doesn't exist for us.
[narrator] Drawing inspiration
from the Colossus statue's
appearance and symbolism,
Bartholdi set out to work on
his New York City masterpiece.
Teaming up with civil
engineer, Gustave Eiffel.
[John] Lady Liberty
is only possible
because Gustave Eiffel
had spent decades
building iron bridges
for the rail road age
in Industrial Revolution.
[narrator] For Liberty,
Eiffel created an elaborate
138-ton iron skeleton.
[Peter] Just an ingenious idea
and I think the statue
is as beautiful on the inside
is as it is on the outside.
[narrator] It took hundreds
of workers almost a decade
to build the Statue of Liberty
in Paris.
In June, 1885, the dismantled
Statue of Liberty,
a gift of friendship between the people
of France to the people of America
arrived in New York Harbor.
All Liberty needed now
was a pedestal.
But neither France nor the
US Congress would foot the bill.
That's when publisher,
Joseph Pulitzer stepped in.
He sponsored fund raisers
and published editorials in his newspaper,
urging the public to raise money.
Remarkably, the fundraising
campaign was a hit.
And in October 1886,
the statue
was officially unveiled,
and designated a universal
symbol of freedom and opportunity.
[Kevin] It is of course the first thing
immigrants would see on their ships
as they went
into New York Harbor,
to the great clearing stations
at Ellis Island
and Castle Gardens.
[narrator] But after
a century standing over
the more than
12 million immigrants,
who sailed into New York Harbor,
Lady Liberty was
in desperate need of repair.
Thankfully, two eager
entrepreneurs came to her rescue.
[Peter] My name is Peter Lehrer,
I have been in the construction
business my whole life.
This was a challenge
and somebody had to do it.
[narrator] While Peter handled
the business side of the operation,
his partner, Gene McGovern,
oversaw the construction.
He was about 6'3"
and I could still see him, uh,
walking on the scaffold
in his cowboy boots without
any type of protection.
[narrator] In 1983,
Peter and Gene
won a sought after
innovation contract,
to restore
the Statue of Liberty.
The challenge was to complete
the high-stakes project
in time for Lady Liberty's
100th anniversary.
[Peter] If we were
not successful
it would have been
the end of our business,
the end of our... our careers.
[narrator] So just how bad
was the Statue of Liberty
in need of a makeover?
Extreme winds and flooding
caused sever deterioration
to the statue's
supporting structure.
And almost half
of the iron framework
that supported
the copper skin had corroded.
[Peter] We believed that if
this project was not undertaken
there was a possibility that
the statue could've collapsed.
It just was
in that poor of shape.
And that would've been
a catastrophe
if that was to happen.
[narrator] With the goal of
preservation, not a replacement,
engineers came up with
a detailed plan
to fix Lady Liberty's
significant problems.
[Peter] Everything that was done
had really never been done before.
Conventional ways
of doing things and repair
were just not possible.
[narrator] So,
now we're wondering
if the statue
aged beyond repair,
could we recreate
New York's most famous icon,
and will the nation
even accept a replacement?
The statue is beloved
by New Yorkers,
by Americans in general.
It would be impossible
to replicate it,
to have anything that would
have the same symbolism.
Sorry. [laughs]
I think the only thing I would
change if we built it today,
is probably the base.
The base was very traditional
when it was designed and built.
[narrator] We'd also
have to decide
where we'd build
and how tall it would be.
[Annabelle] You know,
the design is key,
the engineering is key.
It's very complicated.
[narrator] We'd have to
think about how our goddess
would stand up to Mother Nature.
We'd have to pick
the perfect materials,
and what about the money?
Replacing an icon
is not gonna be cheap.
The cost can be huge,
and I would say probably
30% of those costs are buried
underground and you don't even see them.
[narrator] Can Lady Liberty
pass the torch
to a new Colossus in the Harbor
if we built it today?
[narrator] Since 1886,
the Statue of Liberty
has stood as a beacon
of freedom, opportunity
and a universal symbol
of democracy.
Statue of Liberty
is very famous.
It's, uh, iconic even.
[narrator] But Lady Liberty
wasn't the first sculpture
to embody a sense
of awe and wonder.
[John] The oldest human art
we know
includes cave paintings
of human figurines.
So creating the human form
is one of the things
that makes us human.
[narrator] Prehistoric
carvings with human likenesses
have existed
for thousands of years.
But the most
storied statue of them all
lorded over a Greek island.
The Colossus of Rhodes
was a bronze statue of Helios,
God of Sun.
It was as tall as
a nine-story building.
An astonishing creation
for its time.
[Kevin] It was one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world.
Something that really
fascinated Europe for a long time.
[narrator]
And the inspiration for
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's
design
for the Statue of Liberty.
[Annabelle] Anybody arriving at
Ellis Island saw the Statue of Liberty.
It was very powerful,
sitting out
in the middle of the water.
[narrator] But all that water actually
caused some serious problems.
And by the 1980s, Lady Liberty
was on the brink of collapse.
Fierce winds, heavy rain
and flooding wreaked havoc
on the statue's
mechanical, electrical
and plumbing systems.
[Peter] There was considerable
structural problems
and if they were not fixed,
there was the danger that
the statue would actually,
uh, collapse.
[narrator] In 1984, with the help of Peter
Lehrer and his partner Gene McGovern,
a major restoration project aimed
to restore Liberty to her original glory.
[Peter] The project,
just from the get-go,
had gigantic
logistical challenges.
The statue is on an island.
We had to figure out how to
create conditions on the island,
to be able to manage
this construction.
[narrator] The project
was a team effort,
made possible by designers, scientists
and engineers from the US and France.
They assembled two teams, just
as Bartholdi and Eiffel did in France.
[Peter] We created these shops
to do two very critical tasks.
One was the shop
for the French artisans,
who had actually
come from Paris.
They brought their own tools
with them.
[narrator] The French workers
recreated Bartholdi's copper shop.
And the Americans played
the role of Eiffel's iron team.
[Peter] The iron workers had to
replace all of the armature bars,
and this was a 24-hour,
seven-day-a-week project.
The armature bars were
taken off, brought into the shop.
They had to be cleaned, the
asbestos had to be taken off.
And we replicated the bars
within the shop
and then re-installed them
in the statue.
[narrator] For two years, workers
scaled the largest free-standing scaffold
ever erected, day and night.
But, saving the world's
most famous statue,
was a risky job.
It is remarkable
how dangerous this project was
and how fortunate we were
that no one lost their life
or was seriously injured.
[narrator] So, what caused this
whole problem in the first place?
Liberty was suffering
from a colossal case
of galvanic corrosion.
What's that?
It's an effect caused by
allowing different metals to touch.
[narrator] If you've ever left your
batteries in your TV remote too long,
you've seen what a mess
galvanic corrosion can make.
Eiffel knew that soldering
iron and copper in direct contact
would lead to erosion.
So, to isolate the copper skin
from the iron bars,
he wrapped the iron
with asbestos insulation.
But, as the decades passed,
the insulation broke down
and the bars started to rust.
And the fact that water
was seeping into the statue,
made everything worse.
Experts thought the solution
was to coat the inside of the statue
with tar and lead paint.
But, that was a bad idea.
It was the worst thing
they possibly could have done
and it accelerated
the deterioration.
We had moisture
that was being trapped
and a continual deterioration
of the structure.
We needed something that would
not deteriorate and that would last,
literally, forever.
[narrator] So, the team
turned to a metal that Eiffel
could have only dreamed
of using.
The final decision
was stainless steel.
No single bar was the same
as another.
[narrator] Peter
and his team decided
every one of Eiffel's skeleton
bars needed replacement.
And that asbestos insulator
gave way to new Teflon linings,
to keep the copper away
from the skeleton bars for good.
Now, refitted
with new technology,
Lady Liberty could
take on the next 100 years.
But, what if those problems had
knocked Lady Liberty off her pedestal?
Now, we're wondering...
Utilizing cutting edge tech,
could we recreate the nation's most
beloved icon fit for the 21st century?
I don't like it.
[narrator] Fair enough, Peter.
But, if the statue ever aged
beyond repair,
could your company rebuild it?
Absolutely. There's nothing
we can't do.
[narrator] That's good enough
for us.
But, before we can start
sketching out our design,
we have some
monumental decisions to make.
How tall could
our new statue be?
What materials would we use?
How many workers would it take?
And how much would this
whole mega-project cost
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're conceptualizing
a brand-new Statue of Liberty.
Built with cutting edge
tech and materials,
so that it can withstand
the test of time.
The Statue of Liberty may have
been ahead of its time, in 1886,
but it comes in a bit short in today's
quest for monumental greatness.
[Emily chuckling] People
sometimes just like really big stuff.
Such sculptures create awe,
right? Wonder.
But they're also symbols.
[narrator] In 2008, Myanmar's
Laykyun Sekkya Buddha
was the tallest statue
in the world,
coming in at 380 feet.
Followed shortly after, China's Spring
Temple Buddha won the title at 500 feet.
And today's reigning champ
is India's Statue of Unity,
at a whopping 597 feet.
That's twice the height
of the Statue of Liberty.
From what we've gathered, the most
recognized statues express the human desire
to achieve greatness
and conquer new heights.
They become national treasures.
So, to light a fire under our
new Liberty, here's our plan.
First, we want to make
this colossus
at least three times
the original height.
That means our new statue
would rise 915 feet,
as tall as a 60-story building.
We'll find our creation a
dramatic setting to spend eternity.
And we'll call her
Liberty Reborn.
But now, we gotta figure out
what our statue's gonna look like.
For inspiration, we'll head to the
place where the idea for Liberty began.
Welcome to Rhodes.
[narrator] Architects
Ari Palla and Ombretta Iannone
were the masterminds behind
a massive 21st century rebuild
of the Colossus of Rhodes.
This statue stand for
about 54 years
but then, there was
a very strong earthquake.
The sculpture snapped
at the knees
and fell down onto the floor.
[narrator] Now, more than
two millennia later,
Ari and Ombretta envision a
quarter-billion-dollar super statue,
half as tall
as the Eiffel Tower.
And not just art,
but a fully functioning
building.
[Ari Palla speaking]
[narrator] And how cool is this?
The new colossus
will soak up the sun
with skin
made out of solar panels.
But, this is Greece.
And we're designing
for New York.
So, what could we use to
clothe our new Statue of Liberty?
Well, the original statue proves
it's possible to be thin-skinned
and tough as nails.
Her copper cladding
is only two pennies thick.
In the 19th century,
workers spent nine years
hammering hot copper into shape
using a technique
called repousse.
In the beginning, Liberty
shone like a brand-new penny.
But, by the early 20th century,
she was showing her true colors.
There was some thought
that we should paint it.
And instead, the Army Corps of
Engineers looked at it and said, "No,
the new, green patina had given
it a color that made it beautiful."
[narrator] The green goddess
is undeniably gorgeous.
But, as we imagine
Liberty Reborn,
something shiny
is catching our eye.
These days, stainless steel is a
whole lot more than your kitchen sink.
It makes a chic cladding,
turning up on everything.
From mammoth art in Brussels,
to a giant bean in Chicago.
But, could it work
for our statue?
For the answers, we're turning to
metallurgical engineer, Richard deHaas.
So, right now,
we're getting ready to pour.
The temperature
is about 2,980 Fahrenheit.
[narrator] This steel foundry
melts metal down to a red-hot brew
and casts it into steep shapes.
It also has this,
a state-of-the-art
robotic 3D sand printer.
The machine takes digital
models and prints them in the sand.
The sand sticks together with
an adhesive to form a mold.
So, from here,
we will then pour the steel.
The steel will fill up all the areas
in between where the dry sand was.
And the sand will then
break down from the hot steel.
And you are left with the
shape that you're looking for.
[narrator] So, could
this cutting-edge machinery
help us create
a new Statue of Liberty?
This technology would
also be used for a statue.
All your parts
can be custom made.
And there's no limit to the
complexity that you're looking for.
[narrator] Perfect.
Now, what about durability?
[Richard] Potentially, stainless
steel could last up to 1,000 years,
because it doesn't
get affected by the weather.
[narrator] Done.
A cladding of stainless steel sounds
perfect for our new Statue of Liberty.
But, what about its framework?
Could we dare to revive Gustave
Eiffel's revolutionary iron skeleton?
The structure of
the Statue of Liberty
is one of its great secrets
and one of
its great achievements.
That structure is what makes
Lady Liberty possible.
[narrator] There's no questioning
Eiffel's engineering prowess.
But his access
to robust materials
was pretty limited
by today's standards.
Mixing copper and iron
for resilience and strength
proved to be his Achilles heel
when it came to corrosion.
So, to avoid weathering,
we would build our entire
statue with stainless steel.
Inside and out.
Your initial cost is a lot
higher, but in the end,
your maintenance will be
a lot lower.
[narrator] Perfect.
But can we lift Liberty higher
than she's ever been lifted before?
Can our dream project
bridge the gap
between Bartholdi's France
and America's future?
And what can we learn
from the world's tallest towers
and one wobbly wonder
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're figuring out what it
would take to create Liberty Reborn.
A modern day version
of the Statue of Liberty.
We wouldn't dream of
tearing down the original.
But after a century battling
extreme weather in New York Harbor,
we wanna make sure that we
could produce a perfect replacement
if she ever aged beyond repair.
And for our colossus, we're
dreaming of the world's tallest statue,
standing tall and proud
at 915 feet tall.
Three times the original height,
but with all the same
beauty and meaning.
We'd build her
out of stainless steel
and a skeleton tough enough
to last another hundred years.
But of course, now that
we have a vision,
we need the perfect location.
[Annabelle] Setting is
very powerful.
That is
!an important consideration
for the success of any
monument and any statue.
[narrator] Liberty's creator,
Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi,
understood the power
of the perfect setting.
To him, Bedloe's Island,
now called Liberty Island,
looked like
a gateway to the world.
So, if we're gonna build a new
version of the Statue of Liberty,
she's gotta be the centerpiece
of New York Harbor.
So, what if instead of
building by the harbor,
we made our statue over it?
In other words,
with today's technology,
could we build our history-making
monument on top of a bridge?
[narrator] Liberty's pedestal
is a classical beauty
made with 27,000 tons
of concrete and stone.
We're making a case for a base
that would bring more Paris to NYC.
Our bridge would pay homage
to Gustave Eiffel.
Years before designing
Liberty's iron frame,
the engineer was famous
for his bridge designs.
We're envisioning a trio
of stainless steel bridges
connecting Liberty Park, Black
Tom Island, and Liberty Island.
The statue would stand on
a platform in the middle.
But why a triple bridge?
Well, we're borrowing an idea from another
colossal dreamer, Ari Palla, in Greece.
Thanks to a strategically
draped loincloth,
Ari's design for a new
Colossus of Rhodes
is a tripod.
[narrator] A tripod is stable
and straightforward.
But our bridge will also have
to be extraordinarily strong.
The original Statue of Liberty
weighs 172 tons.
And at 915 feet, our statue is
going to weigh way beyond that.
So, how can we make sure
our bridge won't crash down
under the weight
of Liberty Reborn?
For this, we'll take another
page from Eiffel's notebook.
[narrator reading]
In a simple stone arch, each piece
is supported by the stones beside it,
all the way down
to the foundations.
That defines a specific path for
the loads, for the forces that happens
inside the...
Inside the arch, right?
That is what we call
the line of thrust
and that is
a given geometry, right?
And that is, in theory, the
perfect geometry of that arch
for that given
loading condition.
[narrator] An arch performs best
when the load it's supporting
is symmetrical
and the load path, or the line
of thrust, stays within the arch.
But if we apply bigger
and bigger loads,
at some point that line of thrust
is gonna go outside of the arch
and the arch will
no longer work right.
[narrator] Unlike stone,
steel arches can bend slightly.
[Jorge speaking]
[narrator] But of course, there are
limits to how much force they can take.
[narrator] On top of that, when
we supersize the Statue of Liberty,
we gotta deal with something
called the problem of scale.
Basically as you, you know,
increase in height,
you're basically putting more
mass on the structure.
You know, it has to transfer through
this structure all the way to the ground,
so there is
an increase in weight.
That means that
in some conditions,
the building can collapse
on itself, on its weight.
[narrator] All right. So, as we scale
up, our statue gets way heavier.
Our arches are gonna need
Herculean strength to hold all that weight.
Time to go back to our bridge
engineer to figure out a solution.
[Jorge speaking]
[narrator] So Liberty's
new platform will be a truss
designed to spread the load
evenly along the bridge arches
and Jorge's given us
another idea.
We'll lean those arches inward like the
arches at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
It'll be a support network
in steel.
And if you're gonna build
high, you gotta dig deep.
We'll excavate down to bedrock and
drill in piles to anchor our foundation.
[Jorge] We are gonna
put a lot of money in
those foundations that
no one is gonna see.
And they are as big,
probably, as a building.
That will deal with
these horizontal forces.
[narrator]
But we haven't conquered
all of Liberty Reborn's
design challenges yet.
After all, this New York.
So there'll be salt spray
from the sea, scorching sun,
snow storms,
and centuries of rain.
But for any tall structure,
the biggest hurdle is wind.
So how can we save our statue
from diving torch first into the Harbor
if we built it today?
[narrator] We're dreaming up a
remarkable feat of engineering
built in the middle of
the New York Harbor.
Picture a massive,
triangular walking bridge
topped off with an
all-new Statue of Liberty.
And we don't mean
just any old replica.
This engineering spectacle would
be three times the size of the original,
perched on top of a bridge making
it the tallest statue in the world.
Sure, it sounds wild, but our
experts say it's not impossible.
We have built bridges that size.
Uh, I think it's more that
massive load in the middle,
which is gonna be
a huge challenge to overcome.
But engineering has overcome
other challenges as well.
So I think it could be done.
[narrator] We're just about ready to rev up
the machines and start our fantasy build.
But first, we gotta figure
out how our goddess
will handle the wicked
winds of New York.
The higher you go,
the faster the wind speed.
So how fast are we talking here?
A big thunderstorm can pack
winds of up to 150 miles an hour,
and tornadoes have been
clocked at 310 miles an hour.
But wait, it gets worse.
Because of a phenomenon called
natural resonant frequency.
What's that?
Well, every structure, from
a wine glass to a skyscraper,
has a frequency at which
it wants to vibrate.
[Fadi] Imagine if you were
pushing against a swing
at the frequency
that actually matches
the natural frequency
of the swing.
Then that swing
will keep vibrating
back and forth
and increasing in amplitude.
And what does that mean? As the
actual structure will keep vibrating,
the amplitude
will keep increasing
until something breaks
within the structure.
[narrator] And the results
can be disastrous.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
in Washington in 1940.
This is what happens when the
movement of air around a structure
just happens to match the
structure's natural resonant frequency.
So how will Liberty on a bridge
stand up to nature's bluster?
Maybe the occupants
will not feel safe
when they are on top of
a tower or a statue
that is actually vibrating
a lot.
Structural-wise,
it could be okay.
Strength-wise,
everything is good.
But deflection-wise is not good.
[narrator] So,
what stops tall buildings
from tipping over
or cracking off in high winds?
Well, they're designed to move.
A little.
[Jamil] When it comes to the main
part where we are standing on now,
the deflection is about a foot.
It depends on the intensity of
the wind blowing on the tower.
[narrator] People in a skyscraper shouldn't
be able to feel the building move.
If there is movement, the
structure has to absorb it and fast.
So, how does engineering
save the day?
As it turns out, many super tall
buildings have hanging weights
called tuned mass dampers.
[Fadi] The tuned mass damper, in
basic terms, it's a mechanical device
that is used to decrease or eliminate
altogether unwanted vibrations.
[Jamil] Basically,
it's the pendulum system
with a mass hanging from
the structure
and it will dampen
this movement until it stops.
[narrator] As the wind pushes
the structure in one direction,
the damper swings
in the opposite direction,
absorbing the energy, keeping
the building nice and steady.
Ari Palla has mass dampers in the
plans for his new Colossus of Rhodes.
And the Statue of Unity has two
dampers weighing 200 tons each.
So, that settles it.
Liberty Reborn will have a pair of
mass dampers hidden at chest level.
Now, it's time
for the finishing touches
before we can unveil
our masterpiece to the public
if we built it today.
[narrator] So, you want to build
a brand-new Statue of Liberty.
Not a copy.
But a multi-billion-dollar,
21st century colossus
to reign over New York Harbor
and inspire the nation.
But a job like this doesn't
get done in a New York minute.
It took more than 3,000
workers almost five years
to build the Statue of Unity.
The tallest statue in the world.
We need just as many workers and
the job could take up to seven years.
So, let's get digging.
To build a big bridge,
the first thing
that you have to do
is build the foundations.
So, everything starts
with a big excavation,
so you can build
your foundations.
[narrator] We'll anchor our
triple foundation into bedrock
and add three
concrete caissons underground.
We'll start building our three
arches toward a center meeting point.
Each one would cantilever out
from the foundation.
Depending on the size
of the bridge,
sometimes those cantilevers
become too flexible.
So, they really need to be
supported by a big tower with cables.
So, basically
what you are doing is
you are making a temporary,
cable-stayed bridge to support your arch
until you get to the center
and you close the arch.
[narrator] Once our three
leaning arches are in place,
we'll build the enormous
platform in the center.
It'll work like
the deck of a bridge,
except its job will be to
support a statue, not traffic.
That platform will need to have a
lot of support along the arch, right?
Because we... we want
to distribute the load
as much as possible along
the length of the arch, right?
[narrator] Next, it's time
to recreate and upsize
Eiffel's inner framework
for the goddess,
but this time,
in stainless steel.
And we'll add two tuned
mass dampers to the chest.
Then, Liberty will take shape with
her shimmering, stainless steel skin.
The cladding will arrive on-site
in pre-fabricated sections.
We'll lift them on cranes
and weld them into place.
And just like that,
the Statue of Liberty would be reborn
atop a bridge in New York Harbor.
The tallest statue in the world.
Engineered to survive
for centuries,
destined to attract millions
of people from all nations.
So, how much money would it take
to make this kind of colossal history?
Well, the Statue of Unity cost
almost half a billion dollars.
But we're looking at an even
bigger bill in the Big Apple.
I think it would be more in
the tens of billions. [laughs]
To start with, you have three
big arches, plus the statue.
I think, for sure,
over ten billion dollars.
Almost for sure. Yeah.
[narrator] To welcome
our new colossus,
we'd throw a party to rival the one
held for the Statue of Liberty in 1886.
Bartholdi was a hero that day.
But one of his dreams
didn't come true.
He wanted Liberty's torch
to have real fire.
So, in tribute to him, the
torch of Liberty Reborn
would light up the New
York sky with eternal flames.
But, of course, the real Statue
of Liberty isn't going anywhere.
Thanks, in part, to the engineer
who helped save her in the 1980s.
I'm kind of always
looking for the statue
if I'm in an airplane and I'm
flying back in and out of New York.
It's sort of like being
with an old friend.
It's just been part of my life.
It lasted 100 years
until we fixed it,
and I think it could last
hundreds more years.
It's in very good shape.
[narrator]
The Statue of Liberty
is so much more
than steel and copper.
For people all over the world, she still
represents hope, freedom, possibility,
and she reminds us
what wonders we can achieve
with art, science,
and colossal dreams
if we built it today.